*EXCELLENT LIFE KEYS* 🔑🗝️
Fri/22nd/April/2022
*Francis Reign* (Ap & Coach)
_"Raising excellent agents of change and transformation, well equipped with Truth and Wisdom."_
*UNDERSTANDING THE ACTS AND WORDS OF JESUS CHRIST (87)*
_And as Jesus reclined at the table in the house, behold, many tax collectors and sinners came and were reclining with Jesus and His disciples. And when the Pharisees saw this, they said to His disciples, "Why does your Teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?"_ (Matt 9:10-11). Matthew's job as a tax collector made him an outsider in his own society. He had willingly chosen to profit off Rome's oppression of his people, and understandably, the only people who approved of such a choice were other people making similar choices. So it's not surprising that Matthew's friends are more tax collectors and sinners, and he invites them to a dinner with Jesus included. Jesus, of course, also accepts the invitation. He's willing to eat with these people, and that's a scandal. Even in our culture, eating with someone implies sharing not just food but something deeper. There's generosity in serving a meal, humility in receiving one, and fellowship - or identification with one another - in eating together. Even strangers around a table become something more: for the duration of a meal, we are friends, colleagues, family.
That's why Pharisees were scandalized when Jesus ate with sinners. He was extending grace to them, acceptance, open arms - before they had repented or changed anything about their lives. He was associating, identifying Himself with, sinners. That of course was at the core of His whole mission, but not many people understood that yet. Jesus accepted Matthew's generosity and humbled Himself to receive the "food of sinners." At the sane time, He gave them the heavenly food of Himself: His time, His Spirit, His Kingdom message, and His love. As He gave Himself to them, He also identified with them. For that day, He allowed Himself to be seen as one of them, sharing fellowship with them. This was an identification He would carry all the way to the Cross, eventually dying for their sins. Whether they would identify with Him, as Matthew was publicly doing, was up to them.
*EXCELLENCE KEY* 🗝️
_When God comes to us, He always enters our low estate to give us gifts from heaven. He comes into our lowly lives to call us to higher ones._
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*Excellence is within you. Bring it out >>*
#1459 ELK.
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